


The Voice

by Anubis_The_Caretaker



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Love, M/M, Pain, Shen saving Zed, project/pulsefire AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 18:31:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14939604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anubis_The_Caretaker/pseuds/Anubis_The_Caretaker
Summary: They had tried to remove Zed's memory and make him a servant like the rest, he fought back only to have Shen save him from them.





	The Voice

“Broken,” the voice mumbled into his mind, Zed couldn’t see, he couldn’t think, he couldn’t function,”useless, broken,” the voice again, it wasn’t human in sound, but it was at the same time,”Corrupted, can’t fix,” the voice wasn’t in the air it was in his mind, a direct line,”Corrupted, restart, fix,” the voice spoke again before his thoughts began to fade.

“Zed!” the voice was from outside, he could hear it, Zed could hear the voice, he knew that voice.

Zed’s thoughts came back in full the small voice whispering in his head beginning once again,”Error, restart, fix, error, error.”

Crashing sound surrounded Zed and the voice in his head was gone, eyes slowly blinking open as his body recognized its ability to function. Looking down at him was the man who had called his name, Shen.

“Do you know who I am?” Shen asked him, pushing away all of the wires still lingering around Zed’s head,”Do you know who you are?”

“I.. speak… speak, yes,” Zed had issues with the words, his jaw locking for a moment before he forced it open,”You, you are Shen, I am Zed.”

Zed forced himself to sit up, his body felt off, it felt wrong. His upgrades, the project upgrades what did they do to him? Looking up at Shen he was met with a worried gaze, bright blue eyes and the clean and smooth silver of Shen’s body standing out among the darkness of the lab.

“What… did you do?” Zed asked as he looked over his body once more, a hand reaching out to touch before pulling back to stare at his own hand, stretching out the metallic fingers,”What did I do?”

“Let’s get you out of here and than we can talk,” Shen responded lifting Zed from the table like he was feather and not a fully upgraded human, filled with metal bits and almost fully robotic at this point.

Normally Zed would have fought, but his body seemed to groan out him as he attempted to pull away, like it had been asleep for a long time. 

They traveled quicker than Zed thought the would, the speed coming from Shen startling Zed as he watched the piece in Shen’s chest function and move.

“Do you feel any pain?” Shen asked once he had slowed down a bit, the world coming back into view from the blue blur they had been traveling through,”Can you control your pieces?”

Zed growled and looked up at Shen, still in the other man’s arms,”set me down and we will see, I feel no pain but functionality.”

“Error,” the voice echoed in his head as he was set on his feet, it wasn’t really there as he could stand, he had functionality his memory just couldn’t let go,”broken, error,” it echoed again, Zed covered his ears nearly collapsing as he screamed at the voice.

“Zed!” Shen’s voice broke through the sound,”Speak to me, open your eyes and speak to me,” his voice was grounding his voice was truth.

Breathing heavily from the power of the voice in his head Zed looked at Shen,”It.. It echos… its still there,” he spoke.

“It would be worse had we kept the headpiece on,” Shen responded as if he had gone through the process himself.

“Worse, this, worse,” Zed mumbled a shut his eyes,”The project was a mistake, it was a mistake, I… I should have listened to you.”

“Zed don’t think about that now, we need to make sure you can still move correctly,” Shen responded, Zed could feel him take one of his hands,”Can you feel this?”

“Yes,” Zed responded,”Nerve systems are running, ability to function is full now.”

“Good, now open your eyes and walk,” Shen dropped Zed’s hand.

Opening his eyes Zed could feel his body have a physical reaction to his mind telling it to walk, unlike when he was on the table, with the voice, the voice.

“Broken,” it echoed.

“Not real,” Zed whispered taking a deep breath, he was still… human right? 

Forcing himself forward he took a few steps, his body slowly working with him now. He lifted an arm, a red blade appearing on one and then the other as he lifted it and forced his programming to work. They let off heat against his skin, though his skin was a mixture of metal and bio-engineered flesh.

“Can you still fight?” Shen asked,”Your systems seem to be fully online.”

“I remember now,” Zed mumbled and stretched his hands out, he could feel everything in his body kick in like a car sputtering to a start after being off for ages,”I remember it all.”

“Can you still fight?” Shen asked once again blue eyes seeming to glow in the dark of the night around them, it had begun to ran, the towers and building around them quiet.

“Yes, I can fight,” Zed responded, he could remember now, the muscles memory, his training his life, Shen.

Traveling quickly Zed moved through the shadow appearing under shelter from the rain, the blades slipping back into their spots as he stretched out his fingers.

“Pulsefire, high end, you are not black market pulsefire, you are the real thing,” Zed stated looking up at Shen who was slowly walking toward him,”Why?”

“You,” Shen responded honestly to the question,”They took you, and without modification I could not get you back.”

“They tried to take away my memory,” Zed admitted,”I fought back, I was broken, I had and error in my programming.”

“No you had emotion still, they failed in their experiment,” Shen replied as he stopped in front of him,”You must keep running now, you are a rogue experiment they will come after you.”

“And now they will come after you as well,” Zed sighed and bowed his head,”You saved me fo..”

“Broken, Error,” it echoed interrupting Zed’s thoughts and words, covering his ears once more.

“I can still hear it, they are still in my head,” Zed whimpered, eyes closed as if he could get rid of it,”They are still there, get rid of it,” he begged.

“It's just your programming, reacting to being free, I promise they aren’t there, I removed it all,” Shen stated lifting Zed’s head to look at him fully, Zed slowly opened his eyes and let his hands hold onto Shen’s.

“Error, broken.”

“It's still there, I can hear it Shen please… get rid of it, the voice,” Zed begged his grip getting tighter,”Please don't let it take over again.”

Shen sighed and shook his head,”I will never let them take you back, but I can… only think of one way to get rid of this voice.”

“Do it!” Zed begged, the voice was becoming consistent in his mind once more,”Get rid of it!”

“I would have to overload your systems, all of them, a reset of sorts,” Shen whispered, it was a grave thing to do considering it could wipe Zed’s memories that they had fought so hard to protect.

“Get rid of it Shen,” Zed begged the voice was in his head now and his eyes were filled with fear and pain,”Get them out!”

Shen pulled Zed close, hugging him tightly, lifting his hand to lower his own mask and kiss Zed’s ear,”Okay,’ he whispered.

Zed let Shen hold him close, he could feel Shen connecting himself to the main systems of Zed’s body.

“I love you,” Shen whispered into his ear before a painful shock ripped through his body and the world went black.

\---

Zed couldn’t move, he was in a murky blackness, as if he had fallen into the ocean. Pain kept his joints locked and his mind was almost blank. He could remember something a voice, the voice inside his mind echoing, but it was gone, leaving him alone in the murky black waters.

‘I love you,’ the voice startled him from his emptiness, it was an echo of a memory, it was deep and sincere, who was it.

‘I love you,’ it echoed through the water’s that bogged down his mind, the blackness seeming less consuming each time it echoed through his mind.

“Shen,” Zed thought he spoke the name aloud but he didn’t it was just an echo in his mind now as he attempted to move through the murkiness.

‘Shen,’ the echoes were intermingling now,’i love you,’ one voice was his own, one voice Shen’s, that all that mattered in that moment.

Zed forced his way through the water, a light appearing in the distances growing larger with each echo of the words. He could move, he could think,’I love you.’ it echoed one last time and the world flashed white.

\---

When Zed woke, all he could remember was the black before the words ‘I love you’ echoed through his mind. He was in a room now, a warm light flickered from a candle on the far side of the room, countered by the soft blue light that emanated that came from the man who sat next to him.

‘A bed… a bed,” Zed whispered to himself, his voice worked, he could remember everything before he blacked out, the overload, the voice,”Gone, the voice is gone,” Zed whispered lifting his gaze and sitting up quickly, his body moving easily as if it hadn’t had all of it systems overloaded.

“Zed..” Shen whispered looking at him with a worried gaze.

“I remember,” Zed answered before Shen could ask, stretching out fingers and letting his blades slip out the red glow from them the same as the lights on his body,”I remember it all.”

“Then it worked,” Shen stated with a relieved sigh rubbing his temples, it felt like he had been holding the world on his shoulders.

“Thank you Shen,” Zed responded blades slipping out of sight as he turned to him,”I am not broken, and the error is no error at all.”

Instead of saying anything Shen looked up at Zed as if expecting him to continue. He looked tired as if he had been waiting days for Zed to wake, even if neither of them needed sleep anymore stress could still cause a reaction such as that from their bodies.

“Its emotion not error,” Zed continued as he slowly stood and offered a hand to Shen who took it and was pulled into a hug,”I fought because those memories were who I was, I fought because those memories were of you.”

“Then what is it you will do?” Shen asked returning the embrace until Zed pulled himself away.

“I will fight, fight for everything that deserves not to be lost,” Zed responded, wiping Shen’s hair out of his face,”I will fight for what I love.”

Shen nodded, a small smile appearing on his lips,”Welcome home Zed.”

“Thanks for bringing me back Shen, I love you,” Zed said, saying the last words with some effort considering he had never actually said them before.

“I love you too,” Shen responded with a nod.

“I know… it’s what got me through the black.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading!


End file.
